Latest news with #Flatt
Business Times
8 hours ago
- Business
- Business Times
Private assets giant Brookfield expects alternative investments to replace public markets in 25 years
[SINGAPORE] Bruce Flatt, the billionaire chief executive officer of Toronto-based Brookfield, is understandably bullish on the prospects of alternative investments. The Canadian investment giant has, after all, amassed more than US$1 trillion in assets under management (AUM), and is one of the world's largest managers of alternative assets, also commonly known as private markets. Flatt foresees that, in 25 years, more retail investors would be channelling their funds to private assets, and the asset class would then no longer be billed as 'alternative'. The 59-year-old, who was in Singapore recently, told The Business Times: 'Fifty per cent of most individuals' retail accounts will have private investments in them. And this is a wholesale change of retirement savings accounts around the world ... so owning private businesses should be called 'mainstream' over the next 25 years.' When that happens, fixed income and equities would become known as alternative assets, he said. Recalling when he first pitched private markets to institutional investors 25 years ago, he said he had described the asset class as nascent. It has since then become mainstream for deep-pocketed investors such as GIC and Temasek Holdings. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Private markets are growing in popularity, as more countries are allowing retail investors to dabble in the asset class, potentially unlocking additional billions worth of funds. Singapore's central bank is assessing feedback to its proposal, made in late March, to broaden retail investors' access to private markets. Institutional investors such as pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds have also entered the fray, allocating more capital to private markets, which have been shown to outperform public-market assets in the long term. More funds flowing into private markets, coupled with the trend of falling initial public offerings on world exchanges, have led to bullish growth forecasts for alternative assets. One of the most bullish is from Bain; it predicts private markets growing at more than twice the rate of public markets, with AUM hitting as high as US$65 trillion in 2032. Singapore expansion Even then, the size of private markets pales in comparison with that of public ones. Data provider Ocorian noted that the total AUM in global public markets stood at US$230 trillion in 2024, compared to the US$12.7 trillion in private assets. Flatt is confident that Brookfield will capture a sizeable chunk of the business out of Singapore. Its office in the city-state is 'a (regional) hub servicing clients and looking after institutional, retail and individual investors – it's a very important city for us', he said, adding that Brookfield sources about a third of its capital for its overall business out of the Asia-Pacific. Flatt said about half the team works on Singapore deals, and the rest are focused on the Asia-Pacific, where Brookfield's AUM is US$146 billion, about 13.5 per cent of its total. The company does not break down AUM by countries. Singapore's AUM is small, but the Brookfield team working on it has shot up from four in 2014, when its office first opened in the Republic, to more than 40 today. To accommodate further expansion, Brookfield is moving to a bigger office in CapitaGreen, a 40-storey Grade-A office tower in the central business district, this month. Together with its subsidiary Oaktree Capital Management, Brookfield will occupy a floor. The extra space will enable the firm and Oaktree to grow to more than 100 staff in the next three to five years. Despite having been in Singapore for more than 10 years, Brookfield sealed its first transaction in the country only last month. It bought three industrial properties from Mapletree Industrial Trust for S$535.3 million, paying a 2.6 per cent premium over their combined independent valuation. Why did Brookfield take so long? Flatt said that as a value investor, Brookfield assesses the current investment environment to be 'much more agreeable' than in 2014, when a lot of capital was chasing assets in the market. In addition, 'it always takes us a long time to get people in place and to be comfortable investing' from when Brookfield first built a hub in Singapore. Eyeing more deals in Singapore With a decade-long presence and the Mapletree transaction, he is confident of a higher number of transactions in the next 10 to 20 years. 'We're a lot more experienced, we have our relationships here, we know all the businesses and companies, institutions, and therefore the future of the business should be much more substantial because of that.' Referring to Brookfield's key focus on real estate, infrastructure, renewable energy, industrial, private equity and private credit, the billionaire chief said 'all the above are open for business' when the firm scours for deals in Singapore. Flatt started his career in Brascan, Brookfield's predecessor, at age 25 back in 1990, and worked his way up to the C-suite in 2002. Since then, he has been credited with expanding Brookfield's presence to more than 30 countries. And with the 2019 acquisition of a majority stake in Oaktree, he also helped propel Brookfield into the ranks of the world's top alternative-asset managers. His value-driven investment thesis, long tenure as CEO, ownership of Brookfield and frugal habits – he takes the subway to work – have led to some observers describing him as Canada's Warren Buffett. Together with a group of partners, he owns 20 per cent of Brookfield. His net worth was US$6.2 billion as at Jun 8, going by Forbes' estimates. That is tied closely to Brookfield's share price, which has jumped 108 per cent in the past five years, in a trajectory that has been largely in line with the company's income growth. In its first quarter ended Mar 31, Brookfield's distributable earnings before gains on asset sales rose 30 per cent year on year to US$1.3 billion, as momentum across its core business remained strong. The first-quarter report follows a record-breaking year in 2024, when distributable earnings rose 15 per cent to hit US$4.9 billion. Brookfield said it uses distributable earnings before realisation because the metric shows income available to be distributed to common shareholders or to be re-invested into the business.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Brookfield Explores Using Insurance Arm to Adopt Berkshire Model
(Bloomberg) -- Brookfield Asset Management Chief Executive Officer Bruce Flatt said its growing insurance business may ultimately own the rest of its operations in a move that emulates Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Republican Mayor Braces for Tariffs: 'We Didn't Budget for This' Trump Administration Plans to Eliminate Dozens of Housing Offices How Upzoning in Cambridge Broke the YIMBY Mold NYC's Finances Are Sinking With Gauge Falling to 11-Year Low Remembering the Landscape Architect Who Embraced the City 'It would be just turned up this way, with the insurance business owning our asset management and our investment operations,' Flatt said Wednesday at the Bloomberg Invest conference in New York, adding that it's 'really what Berkshire Hathaway is.' Brookfield's 'special ingredient' in the insurance business is that parent company Brookfield Corp. sits on about $150 billion of capital, Flatt said. The firm has poured almost $20 billion into the equity of the insurance unit, Brookfield Wealth Solutions, and expects to keep building it out over the next 10 years. Flatt shrugged off recent talk of tariffs and related volatility in financial markets. Brookfield's business is generally unaffected by tariffs because it's 'a local investor' that invests in the infrastructure of strong nations, he said. He added that Brookfield isn't particularly interested in acquiring other fund managers right now. 'We are at the point where we almost have everything that we want,' Flatt said. 'We see no real need to pay up for anything at this point.' The Mysterious Billionaire Behind the World's Most Popular Vapes Rich People Are Firing a Cash Cannon at the US Economy—But at What Cost? Greenland Voters Weigh Their Election's Most Important Issue: Trump Trump's SALT Tax Promise Hinges on an Obscure Loophole Snack Makers Are Removing Fake Colors From Processed Foods ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Bloomberg
05-03-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Brookfield Explores Using Insurance Arm to Adopt Berkshire Model
Brookfield Asset Management Chief Executive Officer Bruce Flatt said its growing insurance business may ultimately own the rest of its operations in a move that emulates Berkshire Hathaway Inc. 'It would be just turned up this way, with the insurance business owning our asset management and our investment operations,' Flatt said Wednesday at the Bloomberg Invest conference in New York, adding that it's 'really what Berkshire Hathaway is.'
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DeepSeek Means More Data Center Capacity Needed, Brookfield Says
(Bloomberg) -- The progress made by Chinese startup DeepSeek means that more data center capacity is needed to handle the growing artificial intelligence workload, according to Brookfield Corp.'s Bruce Flatt. Cuts to Section 8 Housing Assistance Loom Amid HUD Uncertainty The Trump Administration Takes Aim at Transportation Research Shelters Await Billions in Federal Money for Homelessness Providers NYC's Congestion Pricing Pulls In $48.6 Million in First Month New York's Congestion Pricing Plan Faces Another Legal Showdown As the costs of running AI comes down, 'more use cases come about and that's what's going to happen in the next 10 years,' the investment firm's chief executive officer told Bloomberg TV in an interview in London on Wednesday. Brookfield is investing tens of billions of dollars in data centers and other AI infrastructure, on the expectation that tools built by the likes of DeepSeek and OpenAI will be adopted throughout the global economy. Flatt, who has run Brookfield for more than two decades, said the firm's credit arm, which manages more than $300 billion, is another area of growth and could 'quadruple over the longer term.' 'Once in a while we buy something, but we grow methodically' in this space, Flatt added. Asked whether Brookfield was considering buying the minority stake in credit specialist Oaktree Capital Management it doesn't already own, Flatt said Brookfield was 'pretty happy' with the current partner-manager model. Speaking on the economy more broadly, Flatt said 'if I had to pick a spot where more capital will go over the next 18 months, it's probably in the United States.' Trump's SALT Tax Promise Hinges on an Obscure Loophole Warner Bros. Movie Heads Are Burning Cash, and Their Boss Is Losing Patience Walmart Wants to Be Something for Everyone in a Divided America China Learned to Embrace What the US Forgot: The Virtues of Creative Destruction OXO Fought Back Against the Black Spatula Panic. People Defected Anyway ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Federal grant freeze halts dementia, Alzheimer's in veterans research in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Federal grant freezes are impacting many institutions and programs including some right here in the Las Vegas valley. Jason Flatt, an associate professor at UNLV's School of Public Health said a $1.4 million dollar grant from the Defense Health Agency was approved back in November 2024. However, on Thursday learned that it was defunded. 'This is something very personal to me. My great grandfather, my grandfather as well as I have family members and friends are all veterans and so this work is in honor of those people,' Flatt said. 'So, we got a letter that basically said they had intended to fund it. I think it was at the final sign offs and then they were pulling it given current executive orders, they were no longer going to fund us.' The work focuses on military veterans and LGBTQ+ veterans and their risks of Alzheimer's and dementia and the obstacles caregivers face in providing resources and care. Flatt vocalized this project was crucial in addressing those healthcare concerns, as those in the LGBTQ+ community and military veterans face higher health risks due to military-related factors like PTSD and traumatic brain injuries, along with high rates of depression and anxiety. 'We have a large number of veteran communities here in Las Vegas and elsewhere that really would benefit from learning about their needs and ensuring that the people who fought for our freedoms have the rights to care and resources,' explained Flatt. Flatt told 8 News Now he spent over two years gathering data, preparing for the project's proposal, and collecting a team of experts. 'It was a competitive process, they only funded two grants, only two and it's called the Transforming Care Award and we were one of the two.' Flatt commented. His team includes graduate students, military veterans, and healthcare workers in Nevada and in other states, which will all now be impacted. 'Right now I have funding to support my team through August and after that we'll have to explore what happens,' Flatt said. 'Or if any of my other grants are unfortunately impacted by an executive order right, people will get laid off,' added Flatt. 'I'm supporting right now two full-time staff and five graduate students just at UNLV, that's not the other people at other institutions being supported by the work. ' Flatt said while this decision may be a setback, he's not giving up and is looking for funding elsewhere and will continue this work, by raising support. 'We're trying not to speculate what will happen, we're trying to generate awareness and the whole reason why I'm in public health is to make an impact on improving people's lives and that's why I do this work,' Flatt beamed. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
